The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I have mixed feelings about this novel, a prequel to the Hunger Games trilogy that lets us peek in on the formidable teen years of one Coriolanus Snow who later becomes tyrannical President of Panem. I loved the first two-thirds of this novel in which young collegiate Snow is a mentor to the District 12 tribute, an enigmatic and dazzling performer named Lucy Grey. He tries to bond with her, protect her, prepare her, and an indelible bond forms between the two. I don’t want to spoil the storyline but the last third of this novel felt rushed and flat, and the ending was so confusing that I had to read it twice; and when I reached out to a friend who also had just read it, they said they also read it twice to try to figure out what was going on, so it wasn’t just me! Fans of the Hunger Games will be excited for more story. But true bibliophiles will be a bit let down by the effort.
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